Harlandale board feuds over trustee's DWI arrest

By Francisco Vara-Orta :
May 20, 2013
: Updated: May 20, 2013 11:00pm

After a raucous set of public comments, Harlandale Independent School District trustees declined Monday to take disciplinary action against board member Anthony Alcoser, who faces a driving while intoxicated charge.

An agenda item would have allowed the board to declare that he engaged in conduct that would be grounds to remove him from office. Alcoser earlier this month expressed regret at a board meeting for his arrest, later saying he was embarrassed by it.

Board President Jesse “Jay” Alaniz has said Alcoser should resign, and cited Harlandale board policy stating drunken behavior on or off duty is cause for removal. At Monday's meeting, however, he said he put the item on the agenda so the community could decide if they wanted to remove Alcoser.

Alcoser, interviewed before the meeting, said Alaniz tried to use the agenda item as leverage in accusing Melissa Flores Rodriguez, an unsuccessful board candidate this year, of leaking a page from a confidential evaluation of former Harlandale Superintendent Robert Jaklich to news media in 2012.

The page showed Alaniz and trustee Velma Ybarra gave Jaklich low marks, causing supporters of the superintendent to blame them when Jaklich resigned later that year. Alaniz has said he wanted to find who was behind the leak. Last summer, San Antonio police named Rodriguez in a search warrant as a suspect but no charges have been filed.

Alcoser said Alaniz offered to drop the attempt to remove him from office if Alcoser signed an affidavit stating he knew Rodriguez was the leaker. Alaniz said he couldn't remember making such a proposal and said it was Alcoser who was trying make a deal.

Before the board moved behind closed doors to briefly discuss disciplining Alcoser, it heard 22 speakers, including former trustees and school board candidates. Most of those who spoke of Alcoser defended him. Some threw out allegations against other trustees. Some trustees called for order as the crowd got heated.

One of the speakers was Rodriguez, who left a bag of stones on the lectern, telling trustees, “I need to leave you with the stones you keep on throwing.”

Some questioned the legality of removing Alcoser from office. Texas Education Agency spokeswoman Debbie Graves Ratcliffe said Texas law allows the removal of an elected official from office for alcohol intoxication, but she couldn't recall any recent case involving a school board trustee and said it might require a judge's order.

Senate Bill 122, which would clarify that a state district judge can remove a school trustee from office, was approved last week by the Texas House and is headed to Gov. Rick Perry's desk. Both Alaniz and Alcoser agreed that their conversation Friday was in the office of Harlandale Superintendent Rey Madrigal and ended abruptly when Alaniz left. Both said Madrigal, trustee Ybarra and the district's lawyer, Tony Resendez, were present. Alcoser stressed that Madrigal and Resendez appeared stunned and blindsided by Alaniz's alleged proposal.

Ybarra said Monday that Alcoser's story was “90 percent incorrect” but declined to comment further. Madrigal had no comment and Resendez couldn't be reached.

In an interview, Alcoser also publicized Alaniz's arrest in 1990 on a DWI charge. Records show he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge and paid a fine. Alaniz called that irrelevant, since he wasn't an elected official then. He said he wasn't drinking but was under the influence of medication for a health condition.